Organizations committed to positive change in today’s working culture are taking action-oriented steps toward better diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices. Diversity in the workplace is already a familiar concept to forward-thinking companies. But in recent years, increased awareness around social exclusions faced by people from marginalized backgrounds has prompted the term “equity” to be at the forefront of conversations around diversity and inclusion.

As business leaders continue to strategize how to foster a culture of belonging among their employees, they must add the idea of workplace equity to their leadership toolkit.

In this article, we’ll discuss the meaning of equity, why it’s important and how you can build an equitable working environment for your employees.

Workplace equity is the concept of providing fair opportunities for all of your employees based on their individual needs. Before we dive into the details of what this looks like in practice,  let's run through a couple of important definitions.

Although equity and equality sound similar, they are not synonymous. To properly plan for a more equitable workplace, it's important to have a strong understanding of how these terms differ.

Equality seeks to provide all employees with access to the same resources, regardless of the pre-existing barriers they may face. This can refer to an equal distribution of money, resources or opportunities between workers at a similar level. 

Equality is in many ways a beneficial concept that can push company culture in the right direction. However, it often fails to address problems of underrepresentation or an unfair status quo.

Equity is distinct from equality in that it doesn’t provide the same resources and opportunities to everyone. With equity, an organization will recognize that each employee has varying access to resources and privileges. And those with less access may need more support to take fair advantage of opportunities within a given company.

Equity can be complicated to demonstrate in the workplace. This is because what constitutes fair and equitable treatment is often subjective and unique to the experiences of every individual employee.

However, an organization can show equity in the workplace by first recognizing this reality. Fostering an equitable workplace begins with cultivating a safe environment that allows for open discussion and understanding. We’ll talk more about specific steps to take towards equity in the next section.

Equity in the workplace is about “leveling the playing field,” and giving every employee the unique resources they need to have access to opportunities at a given organization. Here are a few ways you can implement a practice of equity within your company.

Prioritize wage equity
Discussion of wages has been made taboo in the past, however, this allows bias in the form of wage disparities to slip through the cracks. Having transparency around wages and openly discussing correlations between employee performance, position and rate of pay are essential to ensuring fair compensation.

Ensure diverse cross-level representation
Many organizations hire for diversity but fail to provide equitable opportunities for advancement to their diverse hires. When this happens, what we see is high diversity in low-paying and low-authority jobs, and over (or exclusive) representation of one demographic in leadership and management. Your company should empower diverse employees by giving equitable promotions and upholding diverse representation in executive positions.

Invest in workforce education
Systemic barriers prevent especially Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC), as well as disabled individuals from accessing education. This lack of access creates an enormous diversity deficit in many workplaces. By investing in a workforce education program, you’re providing your marginalized employees with a potentially life-changing resource that enables them to advance their careers and grow with your company. Fair education is the key to an equitable future in the workplace.
 

Here are seven examples of how you can enable an equitable working environment.

Make job descriptions accessible
This means having transparency around the wage range for different positions, as well as providing a variety of avenues through which talent may access application materials (including non-web-based channels).

Shift to skills-based hiring
Not everyone has access to higher education and this shouldn’t bar them from opportunities for work if they have the skills necessary to do the job. This is the gist of skills-based hiring. Instead of focusing on specific degree requirements in your hiring process, emphasize skills and previous work experience. Then, leverage your existing L&D resources to upskill and reskill these individuals for continuous career advancement.

Provide inclusive incentives
Event-based incentives that center around alcohol or formal dress codes have the potential to alienate some employees. Financial or recognition-based incentives are a better way to reward top-performing team members and avoid exclusion.

Provide equitable access for all employees
This not only means access to resources and opportunities but also physical spaces and materials. It is important to consider whether your meeting room is wheelchair-friendly, whether you have accurate closed captions on a video presentation, and whether your office space has adequate accommodations for employees with sensory sensitivities.

Empower your employees
Even if you have all the best resources in place, it’s up to your employees to take advantage of them. For you, this means making sure your employees know about the resources, know how to access them and feel comfortable and safe doing so.

Ensure equitable benefits
Spousal health insurance should be available to same-sex couples and non-traditional families as well as straight couples. Additionally, parental leave should extend to fathers and mothers equally.

Re-evaluate your equity practices
Everyone makes mistakes and as we continue to take action against a problematic status quo it can be difficult to know what’s right. Organizations should continue to analyze and update their equity practices as new information is given.
 

There's no surefire method for accurately measuring equity in the workplace, which makes it challenging to know the impact of your efforts. A common tactic for understanding the state of equity in your organization is through employee satisfaction surveys or net promoter scores (NPS).

Here's an example of some survey questions you can include that specifically speak to equity:

Do you believe you are treated fairly at work?

Do you believe that your organization's promotion practices are fair?

Do you believe that your compensation and benefits package is fair for your skills, level of experience and job responsibilities?

Additionally, it's important to collaborate closely with your people management team and train them on how to have open conversations about DEI with their direct reports. Managers are in a unique position to build trust with their teams and solicit honest feedback.

Equity, the practice of meeting the unique needs of individual employees, is a vital concept for today’s workforce. Implementing equitable actions in your organization has the potential to change the lives of your employees and affect positive change in the wider world.

Ready to take greater action on DEI? Download this free diversity presentation template to access industry benchmarks, project roadmaps and other useful tools to power your DEI strategy forward.

Don't overlook the importance of equity. Here are 7 exceptional examples of promoting workplace equity to guide your DEI strategy.

7 exceptional examples of equity in the workplace

Don't overlook the importance of equity when developing a DEI strategy. Here are 7 examples of equity in the workplace to guide your efforts.

Skill-building is a top priority for L&D and HR leaders, yet many organizations still struggle to find the right approach to address widening skills gaps.

This doesn’t need to be the case—with a training needs analysis, identifying the skills gaps that need to be filled to meet business objectives is a simple process. Let’s dive in.

A training needs analysis (TNA) is a structured assessment that pinpoints gaps in employee skills and competencies in order to identify training programs and methods that will close those gaps. A TNA can be conducted across an entire workforce, within specific departments, or at the individual level depending on the use case and need.

This exercise helps you determine if your organization’s training methods meet the unique skills needs of your workforce and whether your training strategy is cost-effective.

A training needs analysis can also reveal skills gap areas that require more than just an update to training policies. If this is the case, your organization can supplement training efforts with access to education such as degrees, professional certificates, and other credentials.

You can conduct an effective training needs analysis in five easy steps.

Step 1: Understand your organizational goals

Start by taking a step back to define the business outcomes you need to achieve through training. This might include things like filling more roles internally, improving customer service, or building skills to support the roll-out of a new technology.

Anchoring your training needs analysis in your broader business outcomes helps you better assess which training methods are most effective for achieving those outcomes.

Step 2: Identify high-need skills and competencies

You can’t identify skills gaps if you don’t know which skills you need in the first place. This critical step focuses on pinpointing the specific skills and competencies that your workforce needs to succeed in their existing roles as well as future ones. 

Many organizations use competency mapping to identify their skills gaps. Your company might already have a similar process in place; if that’s the case, make sure that your process pinpoints the skills needed for employee and business growth.

Once you’ve identified the skills and competencies needed for your workforce, you can then conduct an assessment to understand where your skills gaps are. There are lots of different types of assessments; the key is to pick the right one (or a combination of multiple) for your particular needs. 

Step 4: Evaluating training methods and content

Now that you have a clearer picture of your organization’s skills gaps, it’s time to evaluate what training is needed to close them.

This involves determining whether your existing training programs are efficient and potentially evaluating new ones. It’s important to consider how training is delivered, in addition to the actual training content. For example, you might have the right content in place, but the way that it’s delivered is difficult to access or doesn’t align with the learning styles of your employees.

A training needs analysis shouldn’t be a one-time thing. You should regularly evaluate the effectiveness of your training initiatives. Some questions to ask include:

Are employees completing training programs and achieving learning objectives? 

Are these efforts translating into improved performance and helping the company reach its goals?

Continuous reassessment ensures that your training remains relevant, cost-effective, and impactful.

Training needs analysis: a strategic tool for improving your L&D

It’s tempting to jump straight into skill-building when there are noticeable gaps in the workforce. But without doing a proper assessment to develop the right training strategy, those efforts might not be aligned with your business objectives. 

A training needs analysis makes it easy to find the skills gaps that are standing in the way of employee and business growth. 

Want to fast track skill-building? Download this step-by-step guide on how to implement effective and efficient skills training for your workforce.

Learn how to conduct a training needs analysis to identify skills gaps and improve your talent development strategy.

How to conduct a training needs analysis in 5 easy steps

Don’t leave the frontline behind. Here’s how to ensure that frontline employees are ahead of the AI curve.

AI for the frontline workforce

Action Behavior Centers exceeds promotion rate goals on 3-year anniversary of employee education program

Calculate the return-on-investment with InStride for your industry with this easy-to-use ROI calculator.

ROI Calculator | InStride

From Retail to Finance, InStride helps industries of all types achieve up to a 300% return on their education investments. Want to see your actual ROI and get an in-depth analysis?

EVP Human Resources, Aramark

InStride brings together top-tier educational institutions that have tried and tested online learning. We carefully curate a combination of education programs to meet the future needs of the workforce.

Most workforce education programs lack strategic design

Whether it’s out of reach or uneffective, traditional tuition assistance programs still fall flat. See how we’re changing this for good.

InStride is the premier global provider of strategic enterprise education for companies that need to align their talent & workforce needs with business objectives.

Calculate your potential ROI with strategic workforce education

Companies making an impact

“We are committed to making this program as easy as possible for employees to access. This means removing possible barriers to entry and providing the support they need at each step of their educational journey.”

A better step forward